Pacific islands to become scuba diving areas

Dubai: Islands in the Pacific as well as man-made islands will be reduced to diving experiences for scuba divers as a direct result of global warming, according to former president of Costa Rica and head of the World Economic Forum.

Jose Maria Figueres spoke to pupils from Dubai American Academy yesterday on the efforts that need to be made to reduce our impact on the world, as part of activities for Earth Week.

Gore's colleague

Figueres, a member of the World Resources Institute gave a similar presentation to Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

"When I was president of Costa Rica and Al Gore was running for the American presidential elections, we were both board members and colleagues in the World Resources Institute," he told pupils of Grade 5 and 6.

"We need to take better care of our planet because it is fragile and is showing signs of change. You need to go out and educate your parents too because the older generation lived in a way that didn't take care of our environment," said Figueres.

"Man-made islands will be underwater diving experiences, scuba experiences," he said, highlighting the effects of melting ice cap in the Antarctic which is making sea levels rise.

"The atmosphere is the most fragile ecosystem and we're throwing up 70 billion tonnes of carbon into it every year causing the planet to heat up," he said.

Figueres said better public transport is much needed in Dubai to limit the number of cars on the roads. "In Costa Rica I drove an electric car. During the day it would drive 60 or 70 km and at night you just plug it in. Now in Madrid where I live now, I have no car," he said.

He urged the students to turn off taps while they brush their teeth, switch off lights when they leave a room, recycle paper, take shorter showers and carpool.

If sea levels rise, up to 40 million people could die or need to be relocated and in India, 60 million people could face the same plight.